Hair we go again: Sam’s mysterious bottles

Fresh investigations reveal two alarming facts. ONE: Sam Cohen of IHRB has sold Minoxidil after his office was raided on 24 July 2014. TWO: IHRB’s mysterious bottles are identical to bottles sold under the brand name Hair A-Gain.

It has been alleged that IHRB has never complied with the Prohibition Orders imposed upon it by the Health Care Complaints Commission. Laboratory tests proved that IHRB’s bottles contained Minoxidil. This is a breach of the Prohibition Orders.

When Mr Cohen was confronted with this evidence (of lab tests) during a Tribunal Hearing, he exclaimed that if Minoxidil were found, it must have been put there by me. He was accusing me of tampering with his bottles. Well dear reader, now we have independent tests, at arms length from me, where the chain-of-custody of the bottles had nothing to do with me, and we have returned the same results: Sam Cohen is DIRECTLY selling Minoxidil, and this is a Criminal Offence! I am now escalating this matter to my barrister so that we can take direct action, and not have to wait for government departments to get their act together.

Since Mr Cohen’s relationship with Elias Pharmacy was soured, after the pharmacy was raided and Conditions imposed upon its pharmacists, Mr Cohen has been using several other pharmacies. However, he has also been innovative by selling Minoxidil that seems to me to be nothing more than an off-the-shelf retail product called Hair A-Gain. This is a pharmacy-only medication which anyone can purchase from any pharmacy (BUT NOTE THAT CONSUMERS CAN ONLY PURCHASE THESE FROM A PHARMACY AND NOT FROM ANY TOM, DICK, OR SAM COHEN).

Mr Cohen pleaded his innocence to Channel Seven News reporter Mr Alex Hart. On camera, Mr Cohen said, during a door-stop interview that he has DONE NOTHING WRONG. Yet, after the raid, Mr Cohen went about his business and continued to illegally sell and supply Minoxidil, directly, as the lab results show above. The bottle contains Minoxidil. And this is a Criminal Offence and a breach of the HCCC Prohibition Orders!

Mr Cohen is not licensed to sell scheduled poisons such as Minoxidil. Furthermore, he has been expressly PROHIBITED from selling such scheduled medications and poisons. Nonetheless, he has been selling them, illegally. His bottles are sold unlabelled and unmarked. And they are 100% identical to the bottles sold under the brand of Hair A-Gain — the very brand that he had led us (via the dubious and unverified testimonials that he has published) to believe are useless products. He wants his clients to believe that nothing on the market works, so that clients purchase Minoxidil from him, at astronomical prices.

I suspect Mr Sam Cohen is purchasing the 5-pack of Hair A-Gain and sourcing other eye-droppers and selling these bottles as his own concoction, presumably saying that the bottles contain his secret natural extracts. No-one in Australia is permitted to sell any therapeutic product without the product being tested and proved to be safe and efficacious, and Registered with the TGA. So the moment that Mr Cohen sells any product that promises to re-grow hair or to stop hair loss, he is in trouble, because he has no TGA approvals and no scientific proof. He uses convincing photographs of clients whose hair grew back, and indeed it did. However, it was due to the many medications he sells to them, illegally, and which the clients could have purchased themselves from their local pharmacy or on-line from as little as $7 and $15. My local pharmacist sells Hair A-Gain, two month’s supply, at $49.46, so that makes it $24.73 per bottle. Generic 5% Minoxidil is available from online reputable licensed chemists from $7 and $15 per bottle, delivered free if you purchase six-months’ supply. That’s as low as $84 per YEAR, as opposed to the THOUSANDS that IHRB charges, while selling illegally and endangering people’s health and safety. The rip-off is amazing.

THE IDENTICAL BOTTLES

I believe that Mr Cohen peels the labels off, and sells the bottles of Hair A-Gain. Note the following clues: 1) The bottles are the same size as the Hair A-Gain products; 2) The bottles sold without labels do have glue marks to show where a label had been, and the rounded edges of the labels are identical to the Hair-A-Gain product; 3) The bottles have the sharp top edge.

ANOTHER IDENTICAL MARKER

Click on this image to enlarge.

The base of the bottles supplied by IHRB have a VP sign, which is the name of the company that makes these bottles for Hair A-Gain. VP stands for Vision Packaging. We also see an open bracket ‘ ( ‘ which was where Vision Packaging had placed its phone number using the area code in brackets, starting with (02). However, Vision Packaging changed its phone number, and needed to remove the old number from its old stock, so it machined-out the number, and forgot or was unable to erase it entirely, so the open bracket was left. So, the Hair A-Gain bottles started to show this identical base, and it is 100% identical to the base of the bottles supplied by Sam Cohen of IHRB.

FINGERPRINTS

Click to enlarge

Knowing Mr Cohen as I do, I had suggested to the authorities that they lift the fingerprints off the bottles so that Mr Cohen cannot say that he had never seen these bottles before. His fingerprints will prove that he supplied them. Besides, for operational reasons, I cannot tell you how we know, but there is other evidence that will prove Mr Cohen’s source AND supply. So we shall wait for the right moment, to bring you that piece of evidence.

THE LINKS WITH ASHLEY & MARTIN

Incidentally, Hair A-Gain is owned by South Pacific Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd of West Perth. The Medical Director of this company is a Mr Mario Terry, who also happens to be the Medical Director of Ashley & Martin. I wonder if Ashley & Martin knows that Mr Cohen (who used to work for the old Ashley & Martin) is using their products and passing them off as his own hair regrowth formula, which he sells at exorbitant prices! Mind you, he grabbed the opportunity to take a swipe at Advanced Hair Studio and at Ashley & Martin when speaking with Channel Seven News.

WHICH NOBODY CAN DENY

Mr Cohen has a criminal conviction for lying. I have always said that he has lied about everything. He lives in his own bubble. He denies everything. He has managed to convince the Consumer Tribunal on a few occasions, and he uses these stupid judgements as evidence of his truth. Well, having grown wiser to Mr Cohen’s tactics, I have set about to secure evidence that he cannot deny. We now have independent evidence gathered after the Health Care Complaints Commission executed its second raid on IHRB. We have fingerprints. We have laboratory tests. We have client testimonials. We have affidavits. We have witness statements. We have data and files and evidence from pharmacists, past and present, and those who are not yet in the picture, and we will soon have other material, plus we have perfect chain-of-custody evidence that has nothing to do with me, and we have Laboratory tests of bottles that never came near me, and on which I never clapped eyes. With all this forensic evidence, what else can Sam Cohen do but deny it? Let’s see what the courts will say. However, even if the courts decide against him, I bet you he will still protest his innocence. There is a PhD in this for someone. There is a documentary in it for the public. There is more heartache in it for his solicitor whose actions I will be reporting to the Commissioner of Legal Services. And there might well be immense regret for his pharmacists who might lose their career and their business; PLUS there are a few more surprises which I can’t tell you about just yet, but I certainly will, in due course. As I said to Channel Seven News reporter Mr Alex Hart, I do not mean to harm Mr Cohen. I simply wish to assist his victims who have lost thousands of dollars and have been humiliated during Hearings, wherein all they hear are lies, and all they receive is injustice from useless Tribunal Members who cannot so much as read the first paragraph of the Application at hand.

Years in breach of Sanctions

As at 19 August 2015, IHRB is 3 years & 289 days (that's 1,385 days) overdue on complying with the Sanctions set by the Complaints Resolution Panel which found that IHRB's ads have been 'unlawful, misleading, and unverified'. To learn more, see the 'Days in breach' section in the menu at the top of this page.

Days in breach of TGA Orders

As at 19 August 2015, Sam Cohen and IHRB are 544 days in breach of TGA Orders that demanded that IHRB stop its misleading, deceptive, and unlawful claims and to remove its statements from its website. The TGA also Ordered IHRB to publish a retraction on its website. Despite eventually publishing the retraction, IHRB is still in breach of these TGA Orders. Such a breach constitutes a criminal offence. To learn more, see the 'Days in breach' section in the menu at the top of this page.